Sask Power preparing for another severe storm

It could be another busy week for Sask Power.

Just days after dealing with a major spring storm in southwestern Saskatchewan, it appears as though the utility company will now be dealing with the fallout of another severe storm that's set to hammer the southeastern corner of the province beginning on Tuesday.

"We are prepared," said spokesperson Joel Cherry. "We've made preparations to make sure we're ready for the storm that's been forecast for the southeastern part of the province this week. We have crews and material on standby that can be deployed to any outages caused by strong winds and heavy snow that could come with this system."

"High winds and heavy snow can cause significant damage to infrastructure."

He added that strong winds can often cause downed power lines as well.

"Any downed power line is a potential safety threat. So if you come across a downed power line, or a broken power pole, always stay back a safe distance. At least 10 metres. Call our outage centre," Cherry said.

"Even if a downed power line doesn't appear to be live, you know it might not be sparking or anything, it still very well could be."

In the recent storm in the southwest region, Cherry said it took crews a few days to get power restored in some areas. He said rural areas can often be slower.

"In some cases it can take longer to restore power just because of the way our system is set up. So in the city if you're on a distribution line you're going to be on the same line as all of your immediate neighbours. It can take longer to restore power to individual customers in the country just because there's more line feeding individual customers," he said. 

"We might not even know about damage to a smaller secondary line feeding customers until after we restore power to the main line."

He added that ease of access on roads is also a factor.

You can stay updated on power outages on Sask Power's website through its outage map.

"Hopefully the impacts of the storm will not be as bad as feared in Saskatchewan," Cherry said. "If it is, we'll be ready, and we'll get in and restore power as quickly as we can."